Ideas and Reality (thoreau)
Ideas and Reality (thoreau)Lincoln has been credited as being a person that fought for equality between races, when he himself believed that African Americans were inferior, the image people give him is unreal, propaganda by the Radical Republicans in the reconstruction era. Many people have ideas that do not hold up when put to the test, or even their own reasoning. Henry David Thoreau�s ideas and ideals do not hold up when compared to reality.
Thoreau believed that if a man did less work, the better it would be for the man and his community. He set out to accomplish this task, and accomplished not working, but failed to prove his point. He died at age forty-five, younger then most people in his time, and although he did benefit his community, doing little labor only shortened his life, and proved no better for the community.
Not only does reality disprove Thoreau�s theology, but his own words contradict him. He proclaimed �the government that governs least is the best,� (Civil Disobedience pg. 222 paragraph 1) and then says that, �We have had to agree on a certain set of rules� to make this frequent meeting tolerable�� (Solitude pg. 95 paragraph 3). His contradiction is evident, what is government but on how the people conduct their meetings, lacking the laws of the government, the society would collapse.
He also criticizes the government for not being virtuous (Ponds pg. 119 last paragraph). The American government is controlled by the people, if he wants a government that is virtuous, he should either get elected, or try to get the non-virtuous people out of office. Further, politicians who made their name elsewhere have said things to the effect of, �either you already have a name for yourself, or somewhere along the line...
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